Ljubljana, Slovenia

Davis and Christian enjoying the local band.  Checking out their foreign competition maybe.

Locks on a bridge with my blondies. 
A lock with the initials of 2 lovers is clipped to the bridge as a sign of their love. 

Lots of '4 EVER's here.

Looking up river.
 2 boats with "drivers" and 2 men with sticks.  The men would fight with the sticks until one of them got knocked into the water. 

Some very strange Slovenian Beauty (?) Pageant.  The guy on the end was massive in size!  I am sad we missed the bathing suit competition.  "Tiny" was sure to give "Hagrid" some good competition.

Guards for the "Beauty Pageant."

 

The city was filled with vendors and booths everywhere.  I loved it, but with the heat and the whining that was going on it was hard to really enjoy it.

 

 

Looking over the city. 
Looks beautiful, but we are actually 1/2 way to our car.  A nice Slovenian man suggested that we park by the castle and then just walk to the city to avoid parking issues.  It turns out that the castle was on a hill overlooking the city and it was a steep, primitive walk down and then torturously back up.  But, hey, we got free view and parking.  The w(h)ine was just bonus.

 

 

Yep, everyone was hot and having fun.

 

Vintgar Gorge

About 4 km from Lake Bled was Vintgar Gorge.  We walked on wooden paths and bridges through the gorge to the waterfall at the end.  It was beautiful and with all the trees much cooler than other places around us.  The water was beautiful, clear, and deep.  We all wore our swimming suits hoping to get wet somewhere along the walk. 

 

 

It is very common in Europe to find small religious memorials in seemingly uncommon places.

The water was so clear that you could see the bottom and every fish that was in there.

Not the end yet.

 The waterfall at the end!  The water was FREEZING (or so they all told me).  They all really wanted to swim and Darin saw pictures of people swimming under the waterfall, but it was going to be breath taking.  The boys made a deal with Darin that if they got wet up to their necks they could have 1 euro.  Everyone one of the boys earned their money.  Made crazy by the beauty around him, Darin couldn't help himself and jumped in and swam around.  It was so very ice cold.  I think that I may have been the smartest one in the family that day.

Pre-swim

She got her toes wet and was waiting patiently for her turn.

Finally she stopped screaming and fell asleep.

 We went back to Lake Bled so that the boys could really swim.  The water was "warmer" but I wouldn't say that the water was "warm."  At least that is what I could tell when my toes got in it.  I hate to be wet, so that was just fine for me.

Nude Beach.  At least for the European children.

Anya thought that she wanted to swim, but changed her mind.

Cream Cake, a Lake Bled specialty.  I read about it before hand and knew that I wanted to try it.  It was mostly a pudding and cream filling with a small pastry type layer on the top and the bottom.  Good, but not great.

Jag's favorite thing, the Swans and the little swan babies.

My Strong Man Puts on a Show for the Tourists

Slovenian's believe that it is good luck if the groom and the bride go out to Lake Bled's island church, and the groom carries his bride up the 99 stairs to the church at the top.  I told my boys the story and Noah was determined that his dad should carry me up the stairs.  He even kept calling me the bride.  Darin didn't disappoint his son.  I was hesitant.  There were a lot of steep stairs and it was really hot.  But, not many people were around except for the 3 boats full of Asian tourists that were leaving the island, so I was game. 

 

Darin sent the kids up ahead of us and then picked me up.  After about 5 stairs we hear a collective 'SIGH' coming from the tourists as they notice Darin carrying me up the stairs.  About half way up the stairs and all the tourists are taking pictures. (We are stars in their Slovenian albums now.)  Up a bit more and they start to CLAP as we reach the top.  By now, I am laughing and the pressure is on, Darin can't stop now.  We made it up to the waiting smiles of our kids and Darin plops me down in front of them.  I won't forget my lucky day and neither will the boats loaded with tourists.  What a guy.  We even let him row us back across the lake after his workout.

 

99 Lucky stairs

Me and my Man.  I may look happier than him right now.

Once at the top we were going to have our picture taken, but now there were a few couples wanting to go down the stairs so we put off the pictures for a bit.  While talking with the English speaking (UK/Scotland) couples they ask about carrying me up the stairs.  I tell them that he did in fact carry me all the way up the stairs.  The one older lady looks at her husband and says, "He just held me at the bottom of the stairs."  The other lady looks at hers and says, "He only went up 3 stairs."   Well no wonder the Asian tourists started clapping someone was actually going to make it all the way up. 

I am a pretty lucky gal to have married this man...stairs or no stairs I know that much to be true. 

We've been busy! Lake Bled, Slovenia

School got out on June 14th and we started our summer traveling a few days later.  It is important to take advantage of the summer time.  Our first stop on our vacation was Lake Bled, Slovenia.  Last year we went to Slovenia and loved seeing the cave and castle, we knew that we wanted to go back and check out more of this lesser known country.  Lake Bled is at the top and is only about a 2 hour drive from Salzburg, Austria.  We found a great little apartment within walking distance from the lake.  Slovenia didn't disappoint!  It is still one of our favorite countries.

 

Lake Bled

 

It is 6.6km around the lake.  Early one morning Darin and Davis went running.  The water was calm and the people were sleeping.  The pictures just can't fully show the beauty of the area.

You can visit the island in the middle of the lake.  We rented a boat and Darin rowed us out to see the church on the island.  The boat ride was lots of fun for the kinder.

Our cute oarsman

Anya loved feeling the water.  Davis was in charge of making sure that she didn't go overboard. 
The water was clear and pretty, not too cold either.

The church on the island

The 99 stairs leading up to the church.  I've got a story coming about these stairs.

We were buying our tickets to go into the church and the little man was selling us a 'Family Pass.'  "How many children do you have?"  Looks around.  "3?"  Another child walks up.  "4!"  Nope 5!  "Too many."  He sold us the family pass anyway.

 It is good luck if you can ring the church bell 3 times.  Who doesn't want to be lucky?

It was a little harder to ring the bell than we might have thought.  Each of us did ring the bell just to make sure that we were super lucky!  It was great because nobody else was in the church at the time, so we didn't have to rush our luck.

Noah!  And the sign that says Don't swing from the bell rope.

I almost dropped her.

This is what happens when you are bad in a church...Punishment Pews.

Darin demonstrating the correct way to ring the bell.

I followed his example exactly!

 

The kids took their turn at rowing us home.  What a fun time.  We are so full of luck.